Greenwashing: Difference between revisions

'''Greenwashing is a public relations strategy where a company highlights its positive [[externalities]] to avoid public scrutiny of its relatively much larger negative [[externalities]] contribution.''' In economics it is a logical consequence of corporations trying to reduce costs whilst retaining its customer base. The most prominent cases include:

In the early 2000's, the Volkswagen corporation, was confronted with a dilemma. Market forces were changing, consumers and governments increasingly worried about the [[ecological crisis]] demanded that all car manufacturers meet specific emissions targets. Volkswagen did a cost analysis that found that redesigning their cars to be more efficient would be extremely expensive. So Volkswagen instead of reducing the negative externalities of their product decided to fit 11 million vehicles with a “defect” device. This device included software that could detect when it was undergoing an emissions test and altering the performance to reduce the emissions level.